Going Off Script
Disclaimer: I clearly don't own Castle, but, right now, I wish that I did.
Chapter 1: Paradise Lost
Katherine Beckett returned to bed, tears streaming down her cheeks as she gazed upon her husband. She thought about the first time they met-how she had come to seek the help of her favorite author only to be sorely disappointed by his seeming lack of character.
Still, that meeting had animated her life in a way that nothing had before. She had lived a full range of experiences before her fateful encounter with the man who would become the love of her life, but her happy childhood, her college dreams, her law enforcement career, and even her tragic loss were like faded photos in a police file. It was as if meeting him had lifted her from the page and made her a fully-formed human being.
She smiled through the tears at the thought. Castle really had changed her. Practical, driven Kate Beckett would have never have thought to ponder the nature of reality in such a way before meeting Richard Castle. She reached out to stroke his cheek, and he awakened at her touch.
"Kate?" he asked, his sleepy eyes widening as he registered her distress. "What's wrong?"
"They're separating us, Babe," she managed, the tears flowing harder. Despite her overwhelming sadness, she cringed a little bit at her use of the endearment. It had never quite seemed right when she said it, but she found she couldn't break the habit after all of these years, especially in times of high stress.
He sat up in bed to face her, his hands moving to gently wipe her tears away. "The Script? But we just got back together. What's the ridiculous excuse this time? Am I trying to protect you?"
She shook her head in anguish. "You don't understand. They're making me leave permanently."
"That can't be right, Kate. No matter what they have put us through, they promised us that we were 'Always'."
She marshaled her sarcasm through the tears. "The Script is apparently using a different definition of the word."
"They can't do this! I would have never have gone along with their crazy schemes if I hadn't trusted their promise to bring us back together."
She kissed him gently, pouring her love into the tender movement of her lips and hands. Pulling back, she rested her forehead against his, "We never had a choice, and you know it."
"Then we'll just have to be surreptitious again. Remember that first time after you were shot-how I used my special ninja skills to sneak into your hospital room and hold your hand after your 'boyfriend' left. You were in such pain, and I needed you to know that you were loved."
She smiled at the memory. "Yes, and I wrote you from the cabin so that you wouldn't be worried. I wasn't ready for us yet, but I loved you too much to hurt you like they wanted me to."
He kissed her once more. "I know it will be hard, but we can get through this. No matter what they force us to say or do, we will find each other through the maze of the pages and make it right between us. Partners in crime and in life."
Her face crumpled. "That's just it. I won't be in the pages. The Script is getting rid of me altogether."
"Have they lost their minds! Our stories are intertwined—writer and muse; husband and wife. It's not possible to have one without the other."
"Castle, I know the creator made promises, but he's gone now. Let's just make the best of the time we have left."
"I can't lose you, Kate! We've faced difficult situations before—guns, bombs, knives, freezers, serial killers, power-crazed Senators, our own stubbornness—and we've always made it through. This time is not going to be any different."
"The game was rigged, Castle! We survived those things because the Script wanted us to do so. Now they want me out of the way, and there is nothing we can do about it."
He hugged her fiercely, his face wet with tears. "I won't let you go, Kate! I can't live without you."
Kate held him away from her and lifted his chin so that she could look in his eyes. "You listen to me, Richard Castle. I'm not going to let you do to Alexis what my father did to me after he lost my mother. Our love is not going to break you—it is going to strengthen you. You have so much to offer this world, and our friends and family are going to need you to be strong."
"I don't know if I can," he managed brokenly.
She kissed him then, pouring all of her emotions into the caress. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Rick, and that will never change no matter what the Script does. When it all gets too much, I want you to read that beautiful love story you created for us and remember how deeply you were cherished."
He pressed his lips hungrily to hers, pulling the sleep shirt from her body. "I love you, Katherine Beckett."
"And I love you, Richard Castle-always," she replied, sliding her hands underneath the t-shirt that they always seemed to have him wearing to bed.
They made love for what they feared might be the last time, stealing the right of free will in the vague outlines of the Script which had controlled their lives for so long. The powers that be could not see them in the shadows, and thus did not know that their creations had far more strength than they could have ever imagined.